Déjà Vu
by thetemptedangel
Summary: Kira returned...Eight teenaged detectives... Romantic complications... Murder... Backstabbing...One hell of a summer.
1. Boredom

Raito sat quietly in his dark and desolate world, watching Kagai and Yokoshima gambling over some fool mortal's life. A pool of muddy water had collected at his feet, and he saw his own face, mercilessly reflected, every Shinigami feature evident. True, even as a Shinigami he wasn't the ugliest, but he was ugly enough to inspire in himself a feeling of total revulsion. How had the future-god of his world become this terrible Shinigami?

"Eh, Raito!" Yokoshima called. "The stakes are rising! Two long life spans, waiting for the winner. Care to join us?" Raito shook his head in disgust. These gambling games were a useless waste of time.

"I'd rather rot to death," he hissed back. Yokoshima shrugged.

"Suit your self," he replied, before turning back to his game. Raito snorted and glanced back at the pool of water.

What he had said was true. He really did want to rot away. What was the point in this meaningless life? At first he had continued to kill criminals from his position, but soon realized it was pointless. What benefit would he receive? He was no longer human.

So he spent his days angrily contemplating what in his plan had gone wrong, occasionally killing some one near death to stay alive – for, despite his threat to let himself rot away, his strong sense of self-preservation had never left him. Eighty years had passed.

He wondered how Shinigami survived this boredom. Gambling could only take your attention for so long… and then he remembered. How he himself had come to possess a death note. Someone's sheer boredom.

So he set off towards the portal to earth, to change the lives of millions. Because he was bored.

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Ichiro glared down at his little brother. His adorable little brother. Who was currently playing with a Robot Model AX23007. Ichiro's Robot Model AX23007, to be exact.

Life wasn't fair. Ichiro was the perfect one. The one that got straight A's, who excelled in sports, who was among the most popular in his private elementary school. But Kenshin got all the attention from the adults. Kenshin was fawned over. Kenshin this, Kenshin that. Ichiro was tired of it. He stood up and stomped away. His mother looked after him reprovingly, but he ignored her.

He sat in the middle of his bed, silently cursing Kenshin's birth. The five-year old had brought him nothing but disregard. Ichiro noticed something falling outside his bedroom window. A black notebook.

Curiosity filled him as he made his way to his window and peered down. No one was outside to pick it up. Ichiro couldn't help it; there was something uniquely attractive about this black notebook.

He made his way down the stairs and out the back door. A few of the gardeners were tending to the rosebushes – his mother's favorites. It was the only thing Ichiro shared with his mother anymore. Kenshin hated the prickly thorns of the rose, and stayed away from them, but Ichiro and his mother always strolled through the aisles of roses. He picked a dying rose from its spot on the bush where it waited to be sheared away. It was blackened, but beautiful in its own way.

Ichiro strolled confidently over to the black notebook.

"What are you doing?" came the kindly voice of Akita-sama, Ichiro's favorite gardener.

"I dropped my notebook," Ichiro replied. Akita-sama looked skeptically up at the top floor of the four story mansion.

"From all the way up there?" he asked. Ichiro blushed.

"It was an accident. I was mad." Akita-sama's old face split in an understanding grin.

"Kenshin?" Ichiro nodded. But already his anger at the little tyke was drastically waning. He was only five, what was he supposed to know? Ichiro himself had probably been that demanding at that age.

"But you know what, Akita-sama?" Ichiro asked.

"What?"

"I'm not mad at Kenshin anymore," Ichiro declared proudly. "And I'm gonna go give him a hug." Akita-sama smiled.

"Good for you!" he replied sincerely. Ichiro smiled back and rushed off. In his excitement he forgot the notebook. Akita-sama looked down at it and read the cover. "Death note?" he wondered aloud. "So this is how kids get their entertainment these days. Shows just how well we're raising them." With a sigh he tucked it into his pocket to return to Ichiro later.

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Raito shook his head. This wasn't how it was supposed to work. He had specifically chosen an angry, malleable-minded boy, but now the Death Note was in the hands of some crazy old man who would die soon anyway. This wasn't at all how it was supposed to work. But it could still be entertaining. Raito followed the man, careful not to be seen

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Ichiro ran up the stairs to the large toy room, where his mother was holding a gloomy Kenshin. The Robot Model AX23007 lay discarded nearby. Kenshin perked up the moment he saw Ichiro, and raced to hug his brother. Ichiro smiled and hugged him back.

"I'm sorry," Kenshiin said.

"Me too," Ichiro replied. He was happy. He couldn't believe that a few minutes ago he had wanted to rid himself of his little brother.


	2. Waiting

_He was happy. He couldn't believe that a few minutes ago he had wanted to rid himself of his little brother…_

"Straight A+'s," Ichiro replied, bored. "98 in biology…" he was cut off by the sudden noise of the front door swinging open.

"I'm HOME!" Kenshin announced. As if he needed to. Their mother was already running towards her younger son.

"How are your grades?" she asked anxiously. Kenshin shrugged.

"A's and B's. Can't top good ol' Ichi-chan, but, ya know, I try." He winked at Ichiro. Ichiro pretended not to notice. He hated that his brother could care for him so much when he himself simply felt jealous.

"I'll be in my room," Ichiro said coldly. Kenshin's face fell.

"Wha?" Ichiro ignored his brother and made his way up.

He locked his door behind him, then slid into his seat at his desk. He rubbed his temples distractedly. At school, he was king. Top grades, amazing athletic capabilities, and an attractive face to boot. But his parents didn't seem to notice this. For them, it was Kenshin this, Kenshin that. Could you do this for Kenshin? Could you help Kenshin with that?

Ichiro flicked on the computer screen and opened his history project. He was doing a report on the legendary "Kira", who had brought terror to the world's criminals nearly a century ago. Eighty nine years ago, to be exact. Ichiro opened a window containing the site He had found a mine of information on Kira at this website. The topic was actually quite interesting. It was yet unknown who Kira actually was, but the head of the investigation had informed the world that Kira had been caught and received the death penalty.

Ichiro wondered what it would be like to live in constant terror of someone who could kill you as soon as learn your name and face. And what would it be like to _be_ Kira? Frightening… but exciting.

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Kaori deftly pulled back her hair into a loose ponytail as she sat down at her computer. She opened the Internet and typed in the website's url. After logging in and reconfirming her false identity thrice, she looked through the site index and clicked "The Other Kiras". She skimmed the long essay.

…_Amane Misa disappeared shortly afterwards. Look-alikes have claimed to be her, but DNA testing proved them to be lying. Her true location remains unknown…_

DNA testing! Kaori returned to the main site, and scrolled trough "Vital Information". _DNA…_ she thought as she looked for the DNA information for Amane-san. She began to despair of finding any, but at last found a small note:

_Amane Misa disappeared before sufficient technology was developed to record all DNA information. However, what little was found has been collected **here**._

Kaori clicked the link. This information was indeed meager, but Kaori carefully entered it into her computer program. She pulled up five other sites and entered information from each into the program. At last, quivering with the excitement of the culmination of her three-year project, she clicked "process".

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Raito followed Miyagi Ayame through the halls of high school. The current possessor of the death note was a small, red-brown haired ninth grader, popular among her fellow freshmen, who was dating Yoshida Kenshin. Raito seethed behind her back. The stupid girl didn't even know what the note was. He doubted that she even remembered where she had gotten it.

But Raito remembered. He remembered all too clearly the day his plans for entertainment had been cruelly and savagely torn apart by this girl.

_Ayame followed Ichiro and Kenshin into the house of the late Akita-sama. Unnoticed, Raito followed the trio. His hands were still shaking from the thrill of killing his latest victim – Nobu Akita, 97 years old, cause of death, car accident. _

_As the first day had progressed, Raito had realized there would be no excitement from the old man. He had finished him quickly, and placed the notebook in a visible shelf near the entrance to Akita-sama's home. _

_Unfortunately, the boy he had intended to find it – the older one – hadn't recognized it. But Ayame noticed its beautifully decorated black cover, and silently snuck it into her pocket._

That was nine years ago. Five year old Ayame had hidden away her stolen property in fear of being discovered, and hadn't looked back at it. So Raito was stuck following her. Why didn't he kill her? He himself had wondered that often enough.

The truth was, though at times Raito felt heartless, a small inner sense of justice had prevailed regarding Ayame. It helped that there was a chance that he could sneak the book to the Yoshida boy through Ayame. So he waited. He wondered. He experimented.

His youthful appearance could not be marred. He could not be hurt. He could severe and reattach his limbs. The blood from his right wing had similar properties to a healing salve. He could plan a death years in advance. Such were the mostly useless conclusions he had come to after nine long years of experimenting.

But they weren't completely useless. Because Yamagami Raito never did anything without a purpose. And he had a plan.

"Ayame!" an unfamiliar voice called. Raito looked up, and his eyes widened.

"Misa?"

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	3. Remember

_Raito looked up, and his eyes widened. "Misa?"_

Impossible. Misa could not still be alive. It had been 89 years!

The girl looked up and a look of surprise flitted across her face before being hidden by casual excitement as her eyes lowered toward Ayame. In that moment Raito realized two things. The girl was not Misa. She looked eerily similar to Misa, but there was some subtle difference in her that screamed that she wasn't Misa. His second conclusion was more dangerous to his well being.

The girl had seen him. That she had even seen him was unusual. But, rather than screaming and wondering what the weird monster was, she had pretended not to have noticed him. But what did that mean? He noted that mingled with her look of surprise was knowing. She knew something, but she would not reveal it. Yet.

He realized that there would most likely be books on the topic of Shinigami somewhere in some weird occult library. It was possible that she knew what a Shinigami was. When she walked to Ayame, she determinedly avoided the spot that Raito was standing at. So she must know what he was.

Then why wouldn't she tell anyone? Why didn't she scream? Did she know something _else_? For a moment, he panicked, before realizing that it would do him no good to overanalyze the situation.

"Hotaru!" Ayame squealed as she hugged the other girl. "Long time no see!" Hotaru smiled, but her eyes flickered nervously toward Raito. So she had definitely seen him.

"Yeah, I know!

Raito vaguely recognized her as being the girl that had visited Ayame a few years ago, and a few years before that, and a few years before that, too. So they were long distance friends. He scolded himself for not knowing more about his charge and her friends. But honestly, he hadn't paid much attention to Ayame over the years - she couldn't even see him. Most of his time was spent observing her world, experimenting with his own capabilities in the human world, and plotting to make life more interesting.

He took his time plotting. After all, he had, literally, forever to put his plan into action. He savored the process of deducing and plotting. But the end of his time for plotting was already nearing. He hoped the new girl – who he now knew as Hotaru – would not prove to be a hindrance. But all the same, it would be fun to test his wits against an opponent once more – especially as, this time, he had nothing to lose.

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Kaori chewed her nail nervously as her computer processed the information. It didn't take as long as she had expected, and a few minutes later she was looking at her results. Her eyes widened. She reread the results to make sure there weren't any accidents or inaccuracies. There weren't.

Impossible. Hotaru? But it had only been a joke...

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"Ichiro?" his mother called. Ichiro sighed.

"Yes mother?" he called back.

"There's a girl on the monitor for you." Ichiro raised his eyebrows. _A girl?_ It wasn't like his girlfriend, Takara, to call him. She rarely contacted him outside school, and when she did, it was through iTalk. Besides, his mother should recognize Takara. Other girls knew from experience not call his home monitor. "Oh, wait, it's boy," his mother corrected herself. Ichiro shrugged mentally and made his way down the flights of stairs to the main monitor.

Ichiro recognized the boy on the screen of the monitor. The boy and his two friends were foreign exchange students who had befriended Kenshin. Ichiro could sympathize with his mother thinking the boy was a girl – he wore his hair in an unusually girly but short hairstyle.

"What do you want?" Ichiro asked. He couldn't remember the boy's name.

"Kenshin was wondering if you could tell Ayame that he can't make their date. He woulda had one of us" – at this point the cam shifted to show the two other foreign students before returning to the first boy - "do it, but she's gonna call your house in a few minutes anyway. And... uh... we sorta got our iTalks confiscated. So we can't. So can ya do it?" Ichiro shrugged.

"Sure." He switched off the monitor before the boy could say anything else. He then turned it back on and connected to Ayame's iTalk. He wasn't going to sit around and wait for Ayame to call. After a few rings Ayame opened her iTalk.

"Hey Ichi-chan," she started.

"Listen, Ayame," Ichiro interrupted. "It's about your date..."

"Right," Ayame said quickly. "I was just gonna call Kenshin and ask if we could just, ya know, hang out at your place. Cause a friend just came and surprised me, and I can't just leave her..."

"Ayame, Kenshin wanted me to tell you he can't make the date, so you and your friend can go somewhere else." Ayame's face fell for a second, before brightening drastically. She turned, and the iTalk showed her friend. There was something familiar about that girl...

"Party!" Ayame squealed. "We're gonna have so much _fun_!" The girl smiled, but kept glancing nervously to her side. Ayame turned back to her iTalk. "Tell Kenshin it's fine, 'kay?" she said, before hanging up. Ichiro shook his head, still wondering why the other girl was so familiar.


	4. Wonder

_Ichiro shook his head, still wondering why the other girl was so familiar…_

Ichiro made his way back upstairs and into his room. He soon forgot about the girl as he found a new article on Kira.

…_Suspects included Yamagami Raito, Amane…_

He paused. He remembered Yamagami Raito – he was the college student who looked a bit like Ichiro. But wasn't Yamagami one of the few investigators trusted by the famous L? How could he be a suspect as well? Ichiro skimmed through information on other suspects and Kiras until he saw a short paragraph towards the end regarding Yamagami's imprisonment.

…_Yamagami Souichirou, Yamagami Raito, and Amane Misa were imprisoned for approximately 50 days near the beginning of the investigation. Little is known about the imprisonment, but it is assumed that the investigators temporarily suspected the three. Evidently, suspicion was soon lifted, and the Yamagamis rejoined the crusade against Kira…_

Ichiro jotted down a few notes on his memo pad, then returned to the site's main page. He decided to see if there was any more information on the imprisonment. He doubted that any of his classmates would think to include it in their projects.

An hour later he could find no new information to follow up on the lead. He shrugged then opened his PowerPoint to put in what he knew. He couldn't help wondering if one of the three was actually Kira.

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Kaori chewed he fingernails. How could her best friend's DNA match up so closely with that of Amane Misa? It was too perfect. Hotaru's DNA consisted of more than one eighth the same DNA as that of Amane Misa. Kaori pulled out her iTalk, then hesitated. She didn't want to unnecessarily unnerve her friend. After all, Hotaru was on vacation. And it could easily be a coincidence -perhaps not easily, but it could be. But then there was the bet. She could call Hotaru if only for the sake of the bet.

She took a deep breath and dialed Hotaru's number. After a few rings, Hotaru picked up the iTalk. Loud music was blaring in the background and copper-haired girl was dancing.

"Switch it off, Ayame!" Hotaru said loudly. The girl behind her noticed the iTalk, picked up a remote control, and pressed a button. The music was suddenly silenced. "Hey Kaori!"

"Hey Hotaru! Looks like your summer's gonna be fun. I still don't know what you said to let the principal let you leave school a week early…" Hotaru smiled.

"And you never will. But I know you didn't just call to complain. So what's the deal?"

"The _deal_ is that you owe me fifty dollars."

"WHAT? How?" Hotaru seemed to be scrambling over what had gone on over the last week that could have ended up in her owing Kaori so much.

"You know how I was doing the Kira survivors investigation?" Hotaru's eyes visibly widened.

"No way…"

"Actually, yes way. Your DNA was the top match. Out of all of them. So, HA! You owe me fifty dollars." Kaori looked gleeful, but she trying to gauge Hotaru's reaction.

"Amane Misa?" Hotaru asked quietly. Kaori nodded.

"Yep!" Hotaru suddenly flinched and glanced to her side. Kaori tried in vain to see what was wrong.

"Umm… Kaori? Call you later, 'kay?" Hotaru switched off her iTalk.

Kaori stared stupidly at her iTalk for a few seconds before turning it off. What was that about?

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Raito's ears perked up the moment he heard the new girl ask "Amane Misa?" His wings carried him to her in a few beats. He tried to see who she was talking to, but she quickly made an excuse and turned off her iTalk.

Apparently she was a hiding something. He would have to think on that…

"What's wrong?" Ayame asked.

"Nothing," Hotaru replied quickly. "I just realized I got you a gift, but I didn't give it to you, and I didn't want to forget again." Ayame seemed satisfied with this response.

"Oooh! A gift! What is it? Aww, I didn't get you anything 'cause I didn't know you were coming. How 'bout we go shopping afterwards, and you can get something with my money."

"That's fine, I'll use my own money…" As the girls continued their meaningless conversation and Raito was assured he wasn't missing out on anything, he fell back to sleep.

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Kenshin followed Pierre backstage.

"Are you sure there's no risk involved?" he asked.

"Why, scared?" Noel asked teasingly. Kenshin grinned.

"No, that would just make it all the more fun." Spire rolled his eyes.

"Always the one to get adventurous, aren't you?" Kenshin shrugged.

"Adventure's good," he replied, smilingly deviously. Pierre shushed them.

"Right there!" he whispered urgently, pointing to an opening in the wall ahead of them. "Okay, everyone know what to do?" The group nodded. "'Kay then. This is gonna be so much fun." His grinned as he lowered himself into the entrance. Kenshin looked at his friends, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

"How about we play a little trick on Pierre?"

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	5. Confusion

Confusion

**AN: …sorry for the REALLY late update… and I don't really have a good reason, either sweatdrop…still, hope you enjoy the chapter!**

"_How about we play a little trick on Pierre?"_

Noel thought about it for a few seconds, then stated, "He won't speak to us for a few days."

"Then he'll laugh with us..." Spire added. The two boys contemplated it. At last Noel shrugged.

"Sure," he agreed. Kenshin grinned.

"This_ is_ gonna be fun."

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Ayame strolled into the mall, her gift – a ruby necklace – gracing her neck. Hotaru followed her, still getting used to the place. A bored Raito followed them.

On a normal day, he wouldn't be anywhere near Ayame, but by some strange coincidence, the one day he decided to go to school with her, this new and potentially dangerous character had popped up. He didn't dare take a chance and go do something fun, in case Hotaru took advantage of his temporary absence to make a move. That was when the idea came to him.

He pretended to look bored, and drifted away from the pair, out the doors. At first, Hotaru was still on guard, glancing around every few seconds. But slowly she relaxed, not realizing that Raito was following them on the floor above them. At last she was completely sure that the Shinigami was not following them anymore.

"Hey, Ayame? Can I call my friend real quick? 'Cause I kinda cut her off suddenly..." Ayame shrugged.

"Sure. I'm gonna go buy these skirts." Hotaru nodded gratefully, and slipped her iTalk out of her purse. She quickly entered Kaori's number.

Raito immediately tuned his ears in to what she saying.

"Kaori!"

"Hotaru, is everything okay over there?" Kaori asked.

"Yeah, everything's great!" Hotaru replied, a little too enthusiastically.

"Hotaru, I've known you since kindergarten," Kaori said frankly. "Don't try to hide something from me."

"Umm... it's complicated. But you know what you were saying about Amane Misa's DNA? Could you..."

Raito couldn't help it. If he tuned his ears into something for too long he started drifting toward it. It was one of the drawbacks of ear-tuning. He didn't even realize until his wing brushed against her back and she stiffened. The girl on the screen looked confused, and slightly nervous.

"Hotaru?"

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"Hotaru?" Kaori asked anxiously.

"No names..." Hotaru whispered. Then she nimbly shut the iTalk, turning it off.

Kaori sighed, as she, too, turned her iTalk off. She was worried. Very worried. Something was clearly wrong in Japan. Hotaru refused to have a full conversation with her, and was constantly glancing around as if someone was watching her. Was someone stalking Hotaru? If that was the case, the whole 'no names' comment would make sense...

Kaori sighed. Unless Hotaru explained, there was nothing she could do. Meanwhile she could return her focus to the problem at hand. She glanced at her computer screen, reading again exactly how much of Hotaru's DNA matched Amane's. Eight tenths. It was just plain scary.

Even if Hotaru was Amane's great granddaughter, the match shouldn't be this close. It would usually only be around one-eighth. Sure, some of it could be attributed to similarity among the other great grandparents, but…

A part of Kaori's mind wondered if this was all some twist of fate that would make sure Hotaru was acknowledged as Amane's great granddaughter. A normal one eighth could be easily tossed off as coincidence. But three fourths... at the very least it merited looking into.

Kaori yawned. She _would_ look into it... later. Now it was nearly three in the morning, and all she could think about was the comfort of her king sized pillowtop bed... just feet away...tempting her in all its glory. She sighed. Depriving herself of sleep wasn't going to do anything.

Without bothering to change, she plopped herself on her bed, and was asleep in seconds.

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Ichiro added the final touches to his PowerPoint. All he had left to do was select the voice he wanted it to be read off by. He scrolled through the long list, but didn't find anything he liked. None of them would give the presentation the right feel. It was a presentation on a world renowned killed, for God's sake! He didn't want it to be read by some cheery girl who needed to get a job as an air hostess. At the end of the list were two links – _Insert Your Own Voice_ and _Select Voice From Our Online List_.

He remembered, as a child, saying the wrong words to the 'Insert Your Own Voice Test' just to see how his words would be read off. It was actually entertaining. If you were ten, anyways.

He had never gone to the online list, though. Why? He had never needed it. But now he had run out of other choices, so, curious, he clicked the link.

The window took a few seconds to load, but Ichiro didn't mind. The page wasn't very brightly colored, and he soon found out why. The list was millions of pages long, and someone would have to be very bored to insert the codes for all of them when it wasn't even necessary. Ichiro sighed and tried out the first few voices, all of which were just as bad as the voices that were already installed in the program. He quickly realized that this approach would get him nowhere.

He noticed a search bar, and was tempted to type in "Yagami Raito". He shrugged to himself. It wasn't like he had any other ideas. He typed in the name.

It turned out 'Yagami' and 'Raito' weren't exactly obsolete names, so it took Ichiro a few minutes to find what he was looking for. But at last he noticed an entry whose description read '_Voice of Yagami Raito, member of Kira-hunting team led by __Lawliet L__. Sample taken days before Yagami officially disappeared.'_ Ichiro was curious as to what this Yagami-san sounded like. Perhaps his voice would fit the presentation.

He clicked on it, and for a moment his eyes widened in surprise and confusion. But then he smiled, a sort of half-smile. It was the perfect voice.


End file.
